Christianity & Culture
Christianity & Culture Part 6: Review of the First Five Lectures
Introduction After a two-week pause in our study of Christ and Culture, there is nothing more fitting today than to begin with a review of our first five lectures. First, it is a benefit to those who, for various reasons, were unable to join us from the beginning; it provides a broader context for understanding and assimilating the current ideas being presented. Second, with rare exceptions, the learning process requires summary and review as a means of evaluating and permanently securing the truths and ideas that are necessary in the formation of a biblical worldview for living coram Deo (before the face of God). “To live coram Deo,” says R.C. Sproul, “is to live one’s entire life in the presence of God, under the authority of God, to the glory of God.”
Why Study Christ & Culture? “In much of the Western world, though not, by and large, elsewhere, confessional Christianity is in serious decline. That means the inherited status quo in most Western countries cannot continue unquestioned. We are forced to think through, yet again, what the relationship between Christ and culture ought to be.”
D.A. Carson, PhD
Trinity Evangelical Divinity School
Another Definition of Culture “Culture consists of patterns, explicit and implicit, of and for behavior acquired and transmitted by symbols, constituting the distinctive achievement of human groups, including their embodiment in artifacts; the essential core of culture consists of traditional (i.e., historically derived and selected) ideas and especially their attached values; culture systems may, on the one hand, be considered as products of action, on the other hand as conditioning elements of further action.” Alfred L. Kroeber Anthropologist 1876-1960
A Widely Cited Definition of Culture
Clifford J. Geertz, PhD
Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton Symbolic Anthropology
The single most influential anthropologist in America for three decades. 1926-2006
“The culture concept…denotes an historically transmitted pattern of meanings embodied in symbols, a system of inherited conceptions expressed in symbolic form by means of which men communicate, perpetuate, and develop their knowledge about and attitudes towards life.”
Carl F.H. Henry “Every culture is seen to have its own motivating impulse and sense of values, raises its own special questions and provides its own distinctive answers. Each culture relates itself to reality by its own peculiar methodology – be it reason or revelation or empirical observation or tentative hypotheses or subjective decision or whatever else.”
The First Five Lectures • Lecture 1: What is Culture? In three brief sentences, theologian John Frame gets at the heart of the answer: “Creation is what God makes; culture is what we make. Now of course God is sovereign, so everything we make is also his in one sense. Or, somewhat better: creation is what God makes by himself, and culture is what he makes through us.” • Lecture 2: The Cultural Mandate. Carl F.H. Henry: “Biblical theologians contend that divine revelation provides the one and only reliable exposition of human meaning and worth. The pattern of biblical history begins with God as sovereign creator of the worlds and of man who promptly profanes the moral-spiritual purposes for which he was divinely made. It centers in God’s gracious offer of
The First Five Lectures redemption pledged in the call of Israel and fulfilled in the gift of Jesus Christ, now the risen head of the church. It focuses on a global society of redeemed and renewed persons whose present mandate is to proclaim to all men the divine offer of life abundant in God’s kingdom and whose future inheritance includes sharing in God’s triumphant divine vindication of righteousness. Man is made to know and love and serve God and, under God, is to reclaim the earth and mankind for the Creator’s holy purposes. Only if man lives in the light of this scriptural perspective can he escape ensnarement by ancient and modern myths.”
Richard Niebuhr and John Frame Theologian John Frame agrees with Niebuhr’s “five ways in which Christians have understood the relationship of Christ to culture.” In fact, Frame contends that “these are not my models. Everybody who discusses Christianity and culture discusses these.” 1. Christ Against Culture 2. The Christ of Culture 3. Christ Above Culture 4. Christ and Culture in Paradox 5. Christ the Transformer of Culture
The First Five Lectures • Lecture 3: Christ Against Culture. H. Richard Niebuhr: “The first answer to the question of Christ and culture we shall consider is the one that uncompromisingly affirms the sole authority of Christ over the Christian and resolutely rejects culture’s claims to loyalty.” As John G. Stackhouse Jr. writes, “Christians in this mode see the world outside the church as hopelessly corrupted by sin.” • Lecture 4: The Culture, Withdraw or Engage? Philip E. Hughes: “Calvin rightly points out…that we who have been redeemed and rescued from the pollutions of the world are not meant to turn our back on life, but only to avoid all participation in the world’s
The First Five Lectures uncleanness. Christians, indeed, as our Lord taught, are the light of the world; this they cannot be if their light is hidden or withdrawn. Thus they are to let their light shine before men (Mt. 5:14ff.), though at the same time shunning the depravities of unregenerate society and of unchristian worship” (Philip E. Hughes). • Lecture 5: The Identification of Christ with Culture. “The number of special objections of this sort are raised against the Christ-of-culture interpretations can be multiplied; but whether few or many they become the basis of the charge that loyalty to contemporary culture has so far qualified the loyalty to Christ that he has been abandoned in favor of an idol called by his name” (Niebuhr).
The Christ of Culture “The Christ of Culture position tends to neglect the biblical doctrine of sin, because it doesn’t see how bad culture is under the influence of the fall and the curse.”
Dr. John M. Frame
Lectures 3-5 If the first group of believers emphasizes the opposition between Christ and culture (Christ Against Culture), the second group of Christians recognizes a fundamental agreement between Christ and culture (The Christ of Culture). They believe there is a close relationship between Christianity and Western civilization, between Jesus’ teachings and democratic institutions. Therefore, they interpret culture through Christ and, at the same time, understand Christ through culture. In the end, their goal is to harmonize Christ and culture.
Introduction After a two-week pause in our study of Christ and Culture, there is nothing more fitting today than to begin with a review of our first five lectures. First, it is a benefit to those who, for various reasons, were unable to join us from the beginning; it provides a broader context for understanding and assimilating the current ideas being presented. Second, with rare exceptions, the learning process requires summary and review as a means of evaluating and permanently securing the truths and ideas that are necessary in the formation of a biblical worldview for living coram Deo (before the face of God). “To live coram Deo,” says R.C. Sproul, “is to live one’s entire life in the presence of God, under the authority of God, to the glory of God.”
Why Study Christ & Culture? “In much of the Western world, though not, by and large, elsewhere, confessional Christianity is in serious decline. That means the inherited status quo in most Western countries cannot continue unquestioned. We are forced to think through, yet again, what the relationship between Christ and culture ought to be.”
D.A. Carson, PhD
Trinity Evangelical Divinity School
Another Definition of Culture “Culture consists of patterns, explicit and implicit, of and for behavior acquired and transmitted by symbols, constituting the distinctive achievement of human groups, including their embodiment in artifacts; the essential core of culture consists of traditional (i.e., historically derived and selected) ideas and especially their attached values; culture systems may, on the one hand, be considered as products of action, on the other hand as conditioning elements of further action.” Alfred L. Kroeber Anthropologist 1876-1960
A Widely Cited Definition of Culture
Clifford J. Geertz, PhD
Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton Symbolic Anthropology
The single most influential anthropologist in America for three decades. 1926-2006
“The culture concept…denotes an historically transmitted pattern of meanings embodied in symbols, a system of inherited conceptions expressed in symbolic form by means of which men communicate, perpetuate, and develop their knowledge about and attitudes towards life.”
Carl F.H. Henry “Every culture is seen to have its own motivating impulse and sense of values, raises its own special questions and provides its own distinctive answers. Each culture relates itself to reality by its own peculiar methodology – be it reason or revelation or empirical observation or tentative hypotheses or subjective decision or whatever else.”
The First Five Lectures • Lecture 1: What is Culture? In three brief sentences, theologian John Frame gets at the heart of the answer: “Creation is what God makes; culture is what we make. Now of course God is sovereign, so everything we make is also his in one sense. Or, somewhat better: creation is what God makes by himself, and culture is what he makes through us.” • Lecture 2: The Cultural Mandate. Carl F.H. Henry: “Biblical theologians contend that divine revelation provides the one and only reliable exposition of human meaning and worth. The pattern of biblical history begins with God as sovereign creator of the worlds and of man who promptly profanes the moral-spiritual purposes for which he was divinely made. It centers in God’s gracious offer of
The First Five Lectures redemption pledged in the call of Israel and fulfilled in the gift of Jesus Christ, now the risen head of the church. It focuses on a global society of redeemed and renewed persons whose present mandate is to proclaim to all men the divine offer of life abundant in God’s kingdom and whose future inheritance includes sharing in God’s triumphant divine vindication of righteousness. Man is made to know and love and serve God and, under God, is to reclaim the earth and mankind for the Creator’s holy purposes. Only if man lives in the light of this scriptural perspective can he escape ensnarement by ancient and modern myths.”
Richard Niebuhr and John Frame Theologian John Frame agrees with Niebuhr’s “five ways in which Christians have understood the relationship of Christ to culture.” In fact, Frame contends that “these are not my models. Everybody who discusses Christianity and culture discusses these.” 1. Christ Against Culture 2. The Christ of Culture 3. Christ Above Culture 4. Christ and Culture in Paradox 5. Christ the Transformer of Culture
The First Five Lectures • Lecture 3: Christ Against Culture. H. Richard Niebuhr: “The first answer to the question of Christ and culture we shall consider is the one that uncompromisingly affirms the sole authority of Christ over the Christian and resolutely rejects culture’s claims to loyalty.” As John G. Stackhouse Jr. writes, “Christians in this mode see the world outside the church as hopelessly corrupted by sin.” • Lecture 4: The Culture, Withdraw or Engage? Philip E. Hughes: “Calvin rightly points out…that we who have been redeemed and rescued from the pollutions of the world are not meant to turn our back on life, but only to avoid all participation in the world’s
The First Five Lectures uncleanness. Christians, indeed, as our Lord taught, are the light of the world; this they cannot be if their light is hidden or withdrawn. Thus they are to let their light shine before men (Mt. 5:14ff.), though at the same time shunning the depravities of unregenerate society and of unchristian worship” (Philip E. Hughes). • Lecture 5: The Identification of Christ with Culture. “The number of special objections of this sort are raised against the Christ-of-culture interpretations can be multiplied; but whether few or many they become the basis of the charge that loyalty to contemporary culture has so far qualified the loyalty to Christ that he has been abandoned in favor of an idol called by his name” (Niebuhr).
The Christ of Culture “The Christ of Culture position tends to neglect the biblical doctrine of sin, because it doesn’t see how bad culture is under the influence of the fall and the curse.”
Dr. John M. Frame
Lectures 3-5 If the first group of believers emphasizes the opposition between Christ and culture (Christ Against Culture), the second group of Christians recognizes a fundamental agreement between Christ and culture (The Christ of Culture). They believe there is a close relationship between Christianity and Western civilization, between Jesus’ teachings and democratic institutions. Therefore, they interpret culture through Christ and, at the same time, understand Christ through culture. In the end, their goal is to harmonize Christ and culture.
